Viatrovich: UOC should be renamed into ROC

Vladimir Viatrovich, Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory

If the Ukrainian Orthodox Church wants to continue its activities, then it should be renamed. This was stated on November 9 by the Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory Vladimir Viatrovich, responding in a chat for “Glavred” to the question of what the UOC should be called in connection with the latest events around the Tomos.

“Everyone understood this from the very beginning – it’s about the Russian Orthodox Church. If this Church wants to continue its activities in Ukraine, it should be called the ROC. Everyone understands that this Church is not the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and cannot use the brand that it has used for more than 25 years in our country,” said Viatrovich.

Earlier, Petro Poroshenko said that after the creation of the Single Local Church, the UOC would be called the “Russian Orthodox Church”. Later he said that the representatives of the "ROC" have nothing to do in Ukraine and recommended them to "go home to Russia".

According to Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary, with calls for renaming the UOC, "a huge number of believing Ukrainians for some ridiculous reason are denied the right to be Ukrainians". Also, Bishop Anthony said that demanding to deprive the UOC of its name, the schismatics are trying to turn the canonical Church into an alien one for their people.

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